Today has been launched, officially, the mini iPad in all Apple stores and resellers. It is a new product for the company, and a new market, so experts and analysts are eager to see how the new 7.9-inch tablet is sold.
It is available from 329€, price that many people consider too high. And with its A5 processor and no screen Retina, some have described it as outdated. But that does not mean that Apple won't sell a lot of units this weekend.
The first weekend is crucial to the launch of any new product, especially for Apple. If the Monday no publications on the network of the "impressed" with the mini iPad users are, Apple will take a small disappointment. For now, things do not look good.
Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray Analyst believes that Apple will only sell between 1 and 1.5 million mini iPad this weekend. That is almost half of the 3 million iPad 3 Apple sold in its first three days.
There are several reasons for these so pessimistic predictions. On the one hand, Apple has only now released the mini iPad WiFi version, so users who expect the version with LTE won't queue this weekend at Apple stores.
On the other hand, only 6 months have passed since Apple launched its latest tablet, so shorter update cycle is more can decrease the volume of sales. It may also affect that many people in the North West of United States is without electricity and transportation, due to Hurricane Sandy that has ravaged the country during these days.
It should be noted that Apple only sold 300,000 first generation iPad in the first weekend, and around 1 million iPad 2, so perhaps 1.5 million mini iPad would not be such a bad result.
In any case, in iPadizate you can follow all the news on the mini iPad, its first unboxing, analysis and much more.
What do you think? Are you of those who will buy the mini iPad this weekend?
